[SOLVED] Web Browsing for Home Theater and Data storage

[hans olo]

Hello,

Got a 2 bird problem hoping to fix with one stone.. So have a 55 inch Samsung UN55D7000 smart TV in the living room that has a terrible web browser that doesn’t work right as well as storage space and backup issues for about 600 Gigs of content. Currently using a stock i3 Dell Inspiron 620 in the back office as a Plex server that has a 500 Gig HDD that streams direct files to the Plex app on the Samsung smart TV. I keep half of the TV seasons I'm watching and all unseen movies on the Dell and manually backup everything to a 1 Tb WD passport portable HDD every week or so. I’d like to get a device(s) so can browse the web and download content on the sofa in the living room instead of just the Dell in the back office as well as a much better backup solution that is automated and have come up with 3 potential solutions in the $500-600 range. Most of my files are SD or like 360p although some are 720, the house has wired Gigabit Ethernet and the Dell is slated to be upgraded with a 250 Gig SSD, 8 Gigs of memory and a Geforce GTX 750 ti graphics card that need to be installed. Its just me streaming mostly to the TV and occasionally the tablet. Have ruled out android devices as would like multiple browser windows and access to pop up and ad blocker extensions like uBlock origin.

#1. Get a mini pc like the Bmax B4 Pro which has an i3 and 250 Gig nvme SSD, and get an internal 2Tb 2.5 inch HDD for it for web browsing and downloading on the Samsung TV and upgrade the Dell with a 2 Tb HDD and share out the content folders of each and figure out a way to auto synchronize between them as well as a 2 Tb portable HDD for non -attached backup.

#2. Get a mini pc like the Pepper Jobs GLK-UC2X for web browsing on Samsung TV and download files to Synology DiskStation DS220j 2 Bay NAS with either 2 Tb or 4 Tb Ironwolf drives as well as a 2 or 4 Tb portable HDD for non-attached backup.

#3. Get a NAS with an HDMI port like the QNAP TS-253Be with either 2 Tb or 4 Tb Ironwolf drives and hook that up directly to the TV and browse web and download on one device as well as a 2 to 4 Tb portable HDD for non-attached backup.

Can’t figure out and decide between the options and don’t know if should think of this like stereo equipment where seperates are better. Do have concerns with all the options. For the first one think the shared folder backup auto synchronizing probably wouldn’t work well and centralized file location/ management would be better. With #2, how its all gonna work together with multiple devices and for #3 if the QNAP NAS chrome browser supports multiple windows and pop up and ad blocker extensions like ublock origin as well as having on screen keyboard. Would like something that’s easy to operate/ minimal management once set up and would consider other products and options within the budget and might spend a little more for better features or future proofing. Any feedback/ suggestions/ recommendations appreciated.

Thank you,

Hans

 

[Alabalcho]

Separate storage functions (NAS) from "viewing / browsing" (PC connected to the PC). that is, get two boxes - a PC just enough to browse / play movies, and NAS to store content.

 

[USAFRet]

Separate storage functions (NAS) from "viewing / browsing" (PC connected to the PC). that is, get two boxes - a PC just enough to browse / play movies, and NAS to store content.

That is exactly my setup.

The PC is a repurposed i5-3570k/16GB RAM/2x 120GB SSD.
I forget what (old) GPU, but whatever meets your display needs.

HDMI and audio to the TV and 5.2 stereo.

A 4 bay QNAP NAS with 50TB drive space in or attached to it.
Nightly backups from all the house PCs and laptops, movie/music storage, etc, etc.

The PC displays Netflix/Amazon/browser, and reads movies/music off the NAS just fine.

 

[popatim]

I replaced the bluray player with a small PC to act as a dvr & interface to the media server as well as being the bluray player. LoL

 

[hans olo]

Thank you for your replies.. they have been very helpful. Will be going with option 2.. So I’ve been looking at a MINIX NEO J50C-4 Plus mini pc although like the bang for buck on these Amazon renewed HP Elite 8300 Ultra Small PCs. Even though.. want to attach it to back of TV so thinking this Minix will do the trick. It has an Intel Pentium Silver J5005 processor, expandable ram and decent SSD.. should be good enough?

I bring up the processor as struggling to figure out which level of NAS would be best for my scenario.. a low level or mid level, 1 bay or 2, one that runs Plex server or doesn’t need to. Thinking would be good to have some transcoding abilities for some future proofing? Don’t know if should get a more powerful mid level Nas and run Plex server on that with a less powerful mini pc or run the Plex server on a more powerful mini pc like the Bmax B4 Pro which has an i3-8145U and get a low level 2 bay Nas.. or a mid level one bay.. Should prolly move the Plex server from the Dell Inspiron 620 which has an i3-2100..

Initially was thinking the HDD in the Dell needs upgrading so would get a 4 Tb drive for it and a low level 1 bay 4 Tb Nas and continue to run Plex Server on the Dell, keep 1 copy of files there, back 2nd copy to Nas, and make 3rd copy to portable Usb drive. If I ever needed to transcode something the Dell has Intel Quicksync Video.. Seemed like best bang for buck but after reading a bunch doesn’t seem nearly as good as putting everything on 2 Bay Nas and making a Usb copy from there.

Maybe don’t really need to consider transcoding.. but recently upgraded from lowly 3 meg DSL to 100 meg cable, hence the small file sizes. Could use some direction and strategies for setting this up the best way.. potential Synology or Qnap /other model numbers..

Thank you,
Hans

Note: Apologies for doing a major edit of this post and rewriting it due excessive rambling.. was exhausted last night but wanted to reply to your posts.